Rumor: Apple again said to use OLED display for 'iPhone 8' in 2018
Yet another report from Japan claims that Apple is planning to jump to OLED panel displays for its iPhone lineup starting in 2018, using the same display technology found in the Apple Watch.
Japan Display is said to be in talks to supply OLED panels years down the road, according to Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun, a business-focused daily newspaper in Japan. If Apple were to stick to its naming conventions and release cycle, a 2018 handset would be referred to as an "iPhone 8."
According to the latest rumor, Japan Display is hoping to begin supplying OLED panels to Apple in the spring of 2018. Current and previous iPhone models have used LCD displays, which are more affordable than OLED panels.
Monday's latest rumor echoes a report from late November which also indicated that Apple was working to switch to OLED displays for iPhones beginning in 2018. The source of that rumor was another Japanese publication, Nikkei, which said that LG Display was ramping up capacity in anticipation of Apple's switch.
In contrast, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities said a month ago that he doesn't think Apple will embrace OLED panels in the iPhone until 2019 at the earliest.
The Apple Watch is currently Apple's only AMOLED display device.
In addition to being more affordable, LCD also offers supply flexibility, longer product life, and superior visibility in sunlight. OLED panels, meanwhile, are known for bright colors and power consumption savings, which are key reasons Apple chose OLED for the wearable Apple Watch.
The Apple Watch also takes advantage of its OLED panel by featuring a dark user interface, with most screens displaying black backgrounds on white text. Darker UIs can help to stretch out battery life on OLED displays.
However, that advantage does not exist when using LCD, which requires a backlight to illuminate all pixels regardless of color. Without a dark UI, an iPhone with OLED wouldn't be able to realize the same level of power savings.
The Apple Watch is currently Apple's only AMOLED display device.
Comments
"AMOLED displays don't have brighter colors unless they're not calibrated. They are less efficient than LCD displays under normal use. They do have a shorter lifetime, especially in the blue, but also in the green. They do have "burn-in".
They most certainly do NOT look sharper. In fact, in order for Samsung's SAMOLED displays to look AS sharp. They need 33% higher resolution, which is why their displays have such a high resolution. The reason for that is because AMOLED displays are significantly less bright, and so they add an extra green site to the pixel, making the pixel bigger. Complaints have been that their displays look coarse and grainy. Raising the resolution eliminates that problem, but leads to another one. Now they need a GPU with 33% more power, and greater battery use to make up for the larger number of pixels.
Hopefully, if Apple does go this route, in 2018, the displays they use will have solved these problems. The only advantage to using an AMOLED display right now is the greater blacks and the fact that it's thinner. I'd hate to think that Apple is really mostly concerned with making the phones even thinner, while giving in to the other problems."
They can say it’s happening in three years now.
Six months from now they can say Apple is facing production issues.
A year from now they can walk the rumor back and say the 8S.
A year and a half from now they can say it’s back on for the iPhone 8 and that Samsung is producing them.
Two years from now they can say TSMC got the bid.
Etc.
That said, Apple may not change the display technology to make the model special, but I'm betting they will do something outstanding relevant to the Asian consumers.
Unless something drastically changes with AMOLED technology they willl need to use a lot of black in iOS. In 2018, that will be the 6th year the current look and feel, so a major UI overhaul may be in order. By the time iOS 7 came out—7th year for iOS—we needed something more modern.
Even if they do go that route, how many of use use Safari the most? I know I do and I doubt the webpages will switch to light text on a black background.
It’ll have a built-in app that will record the data of a certain sport as you play it.
And there seems to be a belief that a change of that nature is too major for an "S" iteration (although I wouldn't be so sure).
Therefore, no OLED in 2016 (iPhone 7) or 2017 (iPhone 7S).
Therefore, let's just say 2018 (iPhone 8).
That's the depth of the logic here. No more. No less.